Health is an attitude; a state of mind that says, "I am important enough to do what it takes to feel good, look good, and enjoy life." This healthy attitude is based on a belief system that supports daily nutritious eating habits, exercise and activity, time for family and friends, and time for you to do the things that nurture your soul.

In our hurry-up, time-starved world, we are always looking for ways to save time and do things faster. We speed-read, speed-dial, speed-walk and take "power-naps." We spend our entire day multi-tasking. Our "always-on" lifestyle is a health hazard and Personal Chef to Go is "giving you time off" to do the things that nurture your soul. By choosing Personal Chef to Go, you are choosing freedom!

Personal Chef to Go Makes It Easy To Eat HealthyPersonal Chef to Go is dedicated to better eating for all. We believe healthy dining combines nutritious, quality foods with time to savor the experience. We trust that having more time for your dining experience will increase the nutritional value of your meals by revitalizing your senses and healthy eating habits.

Personal Chef to Go has created the perfect selection of delicious chef-prepared meals just for today's healthy lifestyles. Although you may not consider yourself a dieter, you do want to watch what you eat, enjoy reasonably portioned sizes for yourself and your family, and avoid high fat and high carbohydrate foods. All of our menus are designed with you and your family in mind. Each mouthwatering meal is perfectly portioned and well-balanced, so you know you are providing your family with what's best for them even on the most hectic of days.

Bring Your Own Healthy Lunch Maintaining a healthy lifestyle throughout the entire day is simple with the help of our convenient Lunch and Dinner menu. Southwest BBQ Chicken Salad with Chipolte Citrus Dressing or Greek Chicken Penne Pastamakes a great-tasting and satisfying lunch. They’re the perfect way to get started and sample our delicious meals.

Healthy Dinner Made Easy From Grilled Flat Iron Steak with Green Chili Sauce to Chicken Breast Florentine, stuffed with Spinach, Fresh Herbs, Parmesan and Low-Fat Ricotta Cheeses, our Busy Singles or Couples On The Go menus, are tasty healthy lifestyle menus that fit into anyone's schedule and budget and make healthy and delicious dining a breeze.

Home-Cooked Meals With Family And Friends As we focus on health, people are rediscovering the age-old joys of home-cooked meals shared with family and friends. Go ahead and invite your friends over for dinner this weekend for Grilled Herb Marinated Pork Chops or Italian Chicken Stew. Our wonderful Family Favorites will help you prepare an epicurean delight that will make your dining experience nourishing, relaxed and memorable.

We Are Here To Help!

Shopping with Personal Chef to Go offers the quality of nutritional chef-prepared gourmet meals with the ease and comfort of home delivery. It is time-saving, stress-free and has available an exceptional assortment of top-quality foods that will help nourish your body, enhance energy levels, and support well-being. And if you need assistance in preparing healthy meals, our knowledgeable food specialists will be happy to help. Just call 800-440-4915.

08/08/2012

It’s been a hectic morning. As you wend your way back to the office, you realize you’ve forgotten your Personal Chef To Go salad. You hit the nearest drive-thru or eatery and, naturally, choose the healthiest option- a salad.

Oh Salad, how did it ever come to this? Experts say that eating a salad every day may be one of the healthiest eating habits to adopt, but did they know what kind of beasts are being created in the name of the salad? It’s fascinating how language shapes our perceptions. It would seem anything called a “salad,” regardless of its reckless ingredients, is still a healthy choice! Restaurant menu-development teams are definitely on to this phenomenon.

So, what are the problems with this collection of shocking salads found on the menus of our nation’s most popular restaurants? The biggest gripe is the sky-high calories, simply for their shock value–followed by the seriously exuberant sodium levels, and finishing up with some pretty surprising fat counts.

In the new set of Dietary Guidelines proposed for the 2010 USDA Food Pyramid, the average recommended daily calorie intake is 2100, and total fat intake should be 20 to 35 percent of your total daily calories. (At 9 calories per gram of fat, 30 percent would roughly equal about 70 grams of total fat daily for a 2100-calorie diet.) The crazy thing here is sodium: The new guidelines reduced the recommended amount of salt healthy people should consume to 1,500 milligrams (mg), from the previous amount of 2,300 mg. Each one of these salads has more than the daily recommended level of sodium and some have more than double that. Salty!

Even so, aside from all the ills of these non-salad salads, we’ll still opt for the salad more than not. Even though most of those listed here have similar calorie counts to a burger and fries (or two), the saturated fat is generally less, and you do get the benefit of the vegetables. Just remember that any of these salads should be your big meal of the day, and forget about eating another grain of salt until tomorrow (or the day after).

11. Burger King Tendercrisp Garden Salad You have to love the adjectives they come up with, like “tendercrisp!” What exactly does that mean? If it’s the chicken they’re referring to, what that means is “Fried Whole Muscle Breast” as described in the ingredients list. Besides, “tendercrisp” sounds more appealing than “fried whole muscle breast.” Add to that lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, and not one, not two, but three kinds of cheese–and you’ve got one-third of your calories for the day, over half of your fat allowance, and whoopsie, you’re 17 percent over your sodium level.

10. Wendy’s Chicken BLT Salad with Homestyle Chicken FilletYou could eat a regular BLT sandwich for around 400 calories, or you can eat this BLT salad fordouble the calories. Wendy’s boasts that “bacon, lettuce and tomato never had it so good”–that is, if bacon, lettuce, and tomato enjoy the company of chicken chunks, cheddar cheese, garlic croutons and honey-dijon dressing. It seems to kind of take away from the simplicity, and relative healthiness, that is the BLT.

8. Taco Bell Chipotle Steak Taco SaladIt feels cheating to actually call this a salad. If you look at the ingredients, it’s realy a burrito, with the additional calories of the “crispy” (hello fried) bowl. In fact, the big Taco Bell “Beefy 5-Layer Burrito” has 350 calories less! Oh! But this comes with reduced-fat sour cream. Phew!

Calories: 900

Calories from Fat: 510

Total Fat (g): 57 Sat Fat (g): 11 Sodium (mg): 1700

7. Baja Fresh Mango Chipotle Chicken SaladWith “mango” and “salad” in the name of this item it sounds innocent enough–must be something about the tortilla shell, chicken, avocado, cheese and glaze that boosts this baby to the same calorie level you’d reach with four chicken soft tacos.

Calories: 930

Total Fat (g): 52 Sat Fat (g): 9 Sodium (mg): 1960

6. El Pollo Loco Chicken Tostada Salad Can you guess which item on the entire El Pollo Loco menu has the second-highest calorie count? If you said the chicken tostada salad, gold star for you. We suppose the iceberg lettuce qualifies this as a salad? But the chopped chicken, tostada shell, pinto beans, Spanish rice, pico de gallo salsa, sour cream, and jack/cheddar cheese seem to kind of bump it out of the salad category. Oh, and the 62 grams of fat. Salad? Really?

Calories: 1030

Total Fat (g): 62 Sat Fat (g): 15 Sodium (mg): 1570

5. Ruby Tuesday Carolina Chicken Salad Well at least there are garden greens and tomatoes in this one. But what with the fried chicken, almonds, diced tomatoes, shredded cheddar, bacon, and croutons, it’s probably not very “salad-y”. And the nearly two-days’ worth of sodium just can’t be good.

Calories: 1157 Total Fat (g): 70 Sodium (mg): 2891

4. Applebee’s Santa Fe Chicken Salad Applebee’s describes this little diddy as “Real festive. Real good.” They forgot to add “Real fattening. Real salty.” The ironic part is that you could order their Chicken Fried Steak which comes with potatos, gravy and vegetable for 10 less calories. And notice that sodium? That’s the recommended limit for three days.

Calories: 1300 Total Fat (g): 94 Sat Fat (g): 25 Sodium (mg): 3540

3. Chili’s Quesadilla Explosion SaladWhen you think of an explosion, doesn’t your instinct say, “run away"? ” Instinct would serve you correctly here. The danger here isn’t in the salad, per se, which is comprised of grilled chicken with cheese, corn relish, cilantro, tortillas strips and citrus-balsamic dressing–it’s that in addition to the cheese quesadillas served with the salad that should have you running for cover.

Calories: 1400 Total Fat (g): 88 Sat Fat (g): 26 Sodium (mg): 2360

2. Outback Steakhouse Queensland SaladSo you go to a steakhouse and decide to eat healthily, you order the salad with chicken, right? Hahahahaha! Somehow this salad of chicken with mixed greens, cheese, bacon, diced egg, tomatoes, toasted almonds and croutons manages to rack up more than two-thirds of your daily calorie needs, is over 30 percent more of your fat limit, and maxes out your sodium intake for the day. Maybe just order the steak?!

Calories: 1451 Total Fat (g): 117 Sat Fat (g): 30 Sodium (mg): 1477

1. California Pizza Kitchen Waldorf Chicken SaladWaldorf chicken salad…doesn’t sound too bad for a healthy choice at a pizza and pasta joint. But somehow, field greens, grilled chicken breast, grapes, apples, candied walnuts, celery and Gorgonzola cheese have become the sinister sister of the salad world. A word to the wise here, the CPK Garlic Cream Fettucine with Chicken has almost 200 calories less, and believe it or not, the Cheeseburger Pizza and the Meat Cravers’ Pizza both have less calories! With salads like that, who needs pizza?

08/01/2012

Nutrition is a two-part concept. The involvement of eating has both a physiological (eating to live) and psychological (living to eat) component. The dynamic interplay between both aspects is what determines our relationship to food.

The science of eating, i.e., the physiological responses that happen when we take in food, has intrigued scientists for years. Research of our ancestors' eating habits compared to today's is uncovering new discoveries, yet it appears more complex than ever.

Understanding how certain hormones are connected to appetite control seems to be part of the answer. For example, ghrelin is considered the hunger hormone since its job is to "turn on appetite." Opposing hormones such as leptin and cholecystokinin (CCK) have the job of telling the brain that the meal is over.

Science is discovering that several factors determine these hormonal responses. Genetics is always involved in the uniqueness of the human metabolic machine, but influences determined by our daily habits also contribute to the cascade of events that occurs.

Routine Through scheduled eating patterns and habits, our body anticipates when it will be eating next and sends off certain signaling hormones to tell us that we are hungry.

The good news: Programmed eating helps keep blood sugar levels stable, warding off a "negative" cascade of hormonal responses that can cause us to overeat.

The bad news: If we never stop eating, the brain continually senses we're hungry-even when we're not.

Senses Ever wonder why when you walk into a room filled with the aroma of "Grandma's kitchen" you suddenly feel hungry? The sight, smell, taste and texture of food STIMULATE the appetite cascade by way of brain signaling. Specific areas of the brain release specific hormones in response to the activation of our senses.

Seasons Have you noticed that your appetite changes based on the time of year? The ten pounds packed on for winter hibernation can seemingly disappear during summer season. Temperature affects our satiety center and higher temperatures tend to diminish appetite--unless you ignore the signals.

Spirits Alcohol in moderation has its health benefits but in excess can be detrimental. Gluttonous amounts of food consumed because of impaired judgment are often the effect of imbibing too many spirits. While feeling good, the hormone storm that results from overeating can leave you feeling like you've been hit by a Mack truck for the next day or two.

What Can We Do? In efforts to lose weight, starvation diets fail because they ignore the uniqueness of our metabolism. Overriding hormonal responses such as the feeling of hunger may be successful for awhile, but eventually the brain wins. Does this leave us feeling helpless in our efforts to lose weight? Hopefully not. We have all read endless weight loss success stories and here are some tips that can control the release of appetite hormones before they control us.

Avoid processed foods:Foods stripped of their nutrient and fiber sources will trigger a different hormonal response from those that are unrefined. Fiber found in fruits, vegetables and 100% whole-grain-based foods will stimulate the hormones that make you feel full and satisfied.

Be a conscious eater:Eating mindfully, savoring each bite for its flavors, texture, temperature and satisfaction, allows the brain to perceive these senses and relay the message to the stomach. Slowing down between bites tells us we are full before we've consumed more than we need.

Consistency:Eating on a routine basis will program the body to know when to expect food. Look at your lifestyle and support your metabolic needs with scheduled eating habits. Blood sugar balance is one of the most important aspects of appetite control. Meals consistent with a balance of protein, complex carbohydrates and healthy fats will trigger a predictable hormonal response.

Variety:Choosing an assortment of different foods will trigger different senses that help signal the "satisfaction hormones." The approximately 10,000 tastebuds on your tongue allow you to experience sweet, savory, bitter, sour, and salty sensations. These sensations, along with the sense of smell, texture, and temperature, are chemical messengers that let the brain know we feel satisfied.

Eating food as it was intended and experienced by our ancestors--for survival--has gotten lost in the overabundance availability and food-as-reward attitude of today. Has our hormonal "wiring" changed from our ancestors'? Probably not. What has changed, though, is the hormonal expression from an environment very different from our ancestors. Humans are being intoxicated by the abundance of the wrong kinds of food and our bodies are responding.

Think about it. Did our ancestors have French fries, super-sized soft drinks and fast food? You may want to ask yourself the question, "Did my ancestors eat this food?" If not, you may want to think twice about eating it yourself.

Whether you want to watch your weight or just follow a healthier diet,Personal Chef To Go gourmet meals are designed to make eating smart while maintaining a healthy lifestyle easy. Personal Chef To Go chef-prepared meals are already properly portioned, taking all of the guesswork out of meal planning. You'll eat delicious and balanced meals that will leave you feeling satisfied.

Visit Personal Chef to Go for delicious menus that will help you enjoy the convenience of delicious chef prepared meals and still maintain your smart and healthy diet. No more measuring portion sizes or counting calories and carbs - let Personal Chef to Go take care of all that while you just sit back and enjoy a great smart and healthy meal